Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of solid waste reutilization. In particular, it relates to recovery of metal components from sulfide mineral tailings by Microbial Fuel Cell.
Description of the Related Art
With the increasing demand of mineral resources, the amount of high-grade mineral resources that are easy for ore dressing are decreasing sharply. People have to recover valuable metal components from sulfide mineral tailings. Traditional metallurgy technologies mainly apply to high-grade minerals and have already made serious impact on environment. Microbial metallurgy that is less costly, highly efficient and environment-friendly has developed rapidly during the past years.
According to different working principles, microbial metallurgy can be classified into microbial leaching, microbial oxidation, microbial adsorption and microbial accumulation. Microbial leaching recovers valuable metal components by releasing metals from sulfide mineral tailings under microbial oxidization or reduction activities to get free metal ions.
Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) represents one of the emerging pathways for conversion of chemical energy contained in wastes into electrical power. The cathode and the anode chamber of double-chambered MFC are separated by proton exchange membrane. Electrons generated from oxidization reaction happened in anode chamber were transferred from anode to cathode through external circuit. Electron acceptor in cathode chamber then reacted with proton and generated water as well as electrical power. As long as the development of MFC, MFC is going to be a promising pathway for pollution control and biomass energy exploitation.